After publishing a definitive biography of Rodin, she went on to write about the underappreciated women who modeled for the giants of 19th-century French art.
The art historian Ruth Butler was working on her Ph.D. in the late 1950s when she first visited the Musée Rodin in Paris. She would later remember being struck by an arresting plaster portrait of Rose Beuret, Auguste Rodin’s first muse and long-suffering life partner.
Her hair was tangled, as if windblown. Her gaze was penetrating. She was beautiful. Ms. Butler thought the sculpture was the most engaging piece in the room. The museum’s catalog noted the relationship, describing Rose as “hidden in the shadow of the master.”
On the same visit, Ms. Butler spotted a small oil painting of an apprehensive-looking woman who seemed to be holding back tears. It was described simply as the only existing portrait of the sculptor’s mother; little was known about her, the catalog said, except that she was very pious.
Decades later, when Ms. Butler was researching what would become her expansive and definitive 1993 biography, “Rodin: The Shape of Genius,” the painting was still in the museum — and still identified as Rodin’s mother. But by then, Ms. Butler knew better. It was a portrait of Rose.
“I said, ‘That’s ridiculous,’” she told The New York Times. “I thought that if even the Musée Rodin doesn’t care about Rose, then I should write about this.”
